Japan's Honda Motor said on Tuesday it expected annual U.S. car sales to bounce back to 15-16 million in the next three to five years from about 12 million this year, after hitting a 27-year low in 2009.
Analysts are expecting U.S. car sales to reach 11-12.5 million this year, versus just 10.4 million in 2009 at the height of the global recession.
Honda, which sold about 1.2 million vehicles in the United States last year, expects to produce between that number and 1.4 million there this year as the sector slowly rebounds, said CEO Takanobu Ito at an event in south China.
Honda sold about 630,000 vehicles in China last year.
Ito said China was unlikely to surpass the U.S. in terms of sales for Honda in the next five years, but could in the next decade.
